AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So some tabloid’s spewing about me for clicks. Again. Am I supposed to get riled by every little piece of gossip about me?”
“Considering the fact that this is the third one in the last week, I would say it's more than enough reason for you to take it seriously, Troy.”
“Exactly—it’s the third one in the last week, and there’s a chance some other blog’s going to post something else about me before the day’s over. I’m not worrying myself about this, Bing, and frankly, I don’t think you should either. If anything, it’s even more publicity and we all know there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
Bing calmly took a sip of water, clearly trying to think over his next words.
“No,” he finally said, a little quietly but gathered strength. “No. No. This kind of noise is getting way too distracting, Troy. There was a time when it might have been cool and frankly it would’ve been another star on your shoulder, but this is not some hot twenty-something bachelor exploring his options. You’re older now. They’re dissecting your trysts with all these women and saying you’re merely taking advantage–”
“Oh, come on. That’s bullshit and everyone knows it. It’s not as if I did anything wrong with any of them—we had fun, and it didn’t work out. But it was completely consensual, and everyone had a good time.”
“Maybe, but I bet what’s going to draw attention for everyone that reads that article is the fact that you can’t seem to keep a woman—which is the clickbait.”
“And since when am I supposed to care what the fuck they think of my personal life?”
“Since you still have a career, Troy. Believe it or not, this is not as entertaining as you think. It’s not a great look and could end up doing more harm than good.”
I put my glass in the sink as I walked away, “I’m not going to let some idiots who only want clicks determine how I’m going to live my life, Bing. Haven’t done that before and I don’t plan on starting now.”
Bing sat his half-empty glass on the counter as he turned to follow me, sighing, “You’re not going to listen, are you?”
“There’s nothing there, Bing. Frankly I’m disappointed that this is why you had me cut my run short. A freaking tabloid post?”
Bing stared at me, and we both glanced at the stairs as my mom, Tessa, gently made her way down, her granddaughter in her arms.
“At the very least can you try to be a little more discrete from now on?”
“Why?”
“Jesus,” Bing scrubbed his face in frustration.
“Am I supposed to just disappear into a cave now? I wanted to get this far so I could live my life exactly as I chose.”
Bing put his hands up in surrender.
“I’m just suggesting that you not try to make things so difficult.”
“I still don’t get why I should care what anyone says.”
I smiled as I turned away from Bing, lowering myself to pick up Stella.
“Hey sweetheart,” I said as she barreled into me. Stella hugged fiercely and it only made me wish she had more people in her life.
“Hi, Daddy,” she said into my shoulder, her arms squeezing around my neck.
“Did you have fun with Grandma?”
“Yes,” she said, nodding enthusiastically with a big smile on her face. I kissed her on the cheek and she giggled as I gently tickled her. She kissed my nose before hurrying away from me toward the couch where my mom had put a cartoon on the big screen.
“For one, you can think about her,” my mother said softly, clearly wanting to add her opinion to the mix.
“What are you talking about?” I asked incredulously.
“If you don’t care about yourself and feel like you have all the time in the world to fool around, think about that baby.”
I scoffed, “Like there’s ever a time I don’t think about her.”
“Then show it, because it doesn’t quite seem like you are.”
